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 GrimDork wrote:
Man... I knew you'd been missing for a bit. I feel your pain on the computer crap. It all looks good, gonna have to check them out on my computer later, but definitely looks spiffy.

*edit*

Now that I've had a chance to see them at a larger size... Awesome work! I especially like the mage hunter, its a cool model and you've done a good job with it.

Thanks, man. Appreciate the compliments.

Actually went back and worked on the Reckoners a touch more. Added a shinier layer on the maces as they were a touch dull, then added some heavy soot with weathering powder to the heads of the maces, as they are giant incense burners and constantly emit a cloud of ash.

So...

Not a necro since I'm resurrecting my P&M Blog.

I took a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong break from painting playing and I'm now back. Caught up on some of my painting before posting anything here. I've painted both Protectorate models and Skorne models that I can add. My camera needs to be replaced, so some of these shots will be a touch blurry, but I have a nice new lightbox to compensate a bit. Some of these pictures were taken at various times, so the backgrounds will vary. This first post is all Protectorate models. The next will be Skorne.

The last model posted here was Eiryss1. Well... I can honestly say I've got a lot to show you. This post is MASSIVELY image spammy. So... without further ado:

Anson Durst, Rock of the Faith -- Paladin warcaster of the Protectorate. All around good guy, and defender of the weak and innocent -- the establishment LOATHES him for being goody goody:


Gorman and Rhupert -- two of the most commonly used and important Mercenaries that any PoM player can use. Gorman's a mad scientist/alchemist and Rhupert is a War Bad, who inspires troops:


Epic Feora, Protector of the Flame -- Crazy pyro lady is crazy. Protectorate warcaster who LOVES to light the world on fire:


Rhoven and Bodyguards plus the Covenant of Menoth -- The Covenant is commonly called "The Book" and is a buff/debuff unit, while Rhoven can see throught stealth and brings two great meleers with him:


Sanctifier Heavy Warjack -- White balance utterly wrecked in this one, but no other pictures -- A heavy warjack that takes souls from dying friendly models and uses them to fuel itself:


High Executioner Servath Reznik (warcaster) -- Will kill you dead as dead can get -- A monster who follows orders and enjoys it more than a little:


And... finally... Last but certainly not least of my Protectorate of Menoth models, the Judicator.
A colossal, towering over the other models with its 120MM base, the Judicator has the firepower to level a city block. Huge base model painted without the benefits of an airbrush.

Oooh welcome back, wondered if we'd be seeing you again.

Fantastic stuff, the smooth white on that colossal is sublime

 GrimDork wrote:
Oooh welcome back, wondered if we'd be seeing you again.

Fantastic stuff, the smooth white on that colossal is sublime

Good to see you again. Life got super duper busy and then I just stopped updating things. As you can see I've actually painted quite a bit recently.

The white on the Colossal took about 30ish hours of painting with a size 4 Raphael brush mostly. I went down smaller as I started doing shading and lining. I basecoated all the steel and back boilers in about 20-30 minutes and thought 'well, this can't be too bad' and then.... the white. I bought a starter Badger airbrush the moment I finished him.

Never.

Again.

Also, time to actually post my Skorne. I don't have any posted up here and I think it's time that changed.

One of the big things I did with the Skorne is I intentionally limited the palette, to force the army to look cohesive and speed up painting various units and models. I really like the effect it's had. The rules for painting Skorne models, for me, are:

1. Only one color per model outside of the Palette is allowed.
2. No banners on anyone other than Warlocks, due to being playing pieces.
3. Desert themed bases, to maintain cohesiveness.
4. The palette is thus: Turquoise, Steel Grey, Purple, Black, Skin Tone (can vary), and Sand.

Because I typically use the Grey as a trim color, I changed the default skin tone on my titans from the normal Elephant Grey to Hippo Pink (yes, Hippos are pink, but usually so heavily calloused they're almost brown). This gives us a very different look than the books and default models have, but one I like. This, and my rules above, also require that all metal objects be NMM, as metallic colors are not part of the palette. So... I was forced to learn how to do it. And, gradually, I kept improving at it.

The first Skorne model I painted was Epic Hexeris (Lord Arbiter Hexeris):


The second Skorne model I painted was the Titan Sentry, the first of my titan's to get his paint job:


The next models were the Basilisk Krea and Drake, painted as a duo together:


Aggie the Agonizer was technically painted the very first. Early, early test model for Titan skin tone. I wasn't decided on 'no metallics' yet, so this is the one model with non-NMM. Also had a lot of fun with GW blood and snot technical paints. I'll fix it eventually:


Hakaar the Destroyer -- a stone guardian come to life to defend the Skorne. Think the Chinese terracotta statues, only killing people. This model won Silver for painting at Coal and Claw 2014 in Dallas,TX. Not only does he fit within the palette, but he uses a stylized color scheme like Japanese line art. He's pretty much just black and white:


An Ancestral Guardian plus Kovaas -- An AG is a non-Character version of what Hakaar is. The Kovaas can appear when one is destroyed and the soul keeps fighting -- only with the warlock Zaal:


Next came a full squad of Paingiver Beast Handlers (standard support unit):


A void spirit and an Extoler Soulward -- a powerful melee solo and more support:


A full squad of Nihilators -- crazy desert psychos who use pain to drive them into a berserker frenzy -- which normally come 10 to a squad, but only half are pictured (the full squad is painted):


A titan gladiator. The "standard" heavy warbeast for Skorne. Since it's meant to be a gladiator I weathered the armor a bit and then broke off a tusk to make it seem like the beast had seen a lot of work:


Supreme Aptimus Zaal, a warlock able to direct the souls of the fallen and can use the living to fuel his war machine. I won silver at ReaperCon 2014 with this model. Very proud of it:


Cyclops Shaman. This is the last model I painted before taking a massive break. Well, partially painted. The skin and bandages and cloak were done. He languished for 8 months or more. My photography skills had also faded and I do not have any good images of this at this time. Just what you see:


Finally, I have Molik Karn. I completed him about 3 weeks ago and I think he represents the height of my return to form (I was mostly painting Protectorate models until him):


I feel I learned a TON from the Skorne models. First, they broke me out of my comfort zone. There was no gunmetal to drybrush over black in places. Everything had to be done right, no cheating, or it looked like ass. It forced me to learn new things and to work heavily in the various hues of a single color instead of just 'Base, Shade, Highlight'. That doesn't work on such a small color selection.

And, presently on the painting and assembly tables:

The warlock Mordikaar and his pet beast, the Despoiler (some Protectorate models co starring with models needing repair in the back):



Currently being assembled for after is Kreoss 3, a mounted Protectorate knightly warcaster (Dartan Vilmon costarring):

Despoiler's skin tone is done. It's the tone of a bloodless hippo. Vaguely wine color skin, but drained of color.

Progress report:

Mordikaar and the Despoiler have had the Turquoise and the Purple both completed on them. I have begun work on the trim and steel parts of the model Mordikaar wasn't that big of a deal, but the Despoiler's trim work is taking foreeeeeeeeeeeeever due to the sheer amount of it.

Going to attempt NMM Copper for the lanterns on both models when the time comes.

Quick picture from before starting the trim -- Nihilator is a repair job. The sword got badly bent (and since straightened) and in the bending a huge chunk of paint flaked/broke off. The black smudge you see on his sword is where I applied a dab of fresh primer and as the trim I'm painting and that blade share the same color I just added him to the Assembly Line between the other two models. I just tap it with a few brush strokes every hue change to build it back to where it should be.



A quick shot of some of the stuff in the pipeline -- This is my assembly area where I can watch TV while I fiddle with models. Heavy duty conversion work and cutting still happens on my healing mats, but if I'm just cleaning mold lines and flash off a model I plan to convert very little (an average trooper, for example) I'll just watch Netflix while scraping and using a portable light.



To the left is a Skorne standard bearer. Fore and center is the Tyrant Commander, a support model for Skorne that is part of a unit with the previously mentioned Standard Bearer. I went ahead and brass rod'ed his Halberd as it'd been bent in so many places it was wavy after trying to straighten it. Just... no. Brass rod time. Right hand side is from my Warmachine faction of Menoth. It's the horse for the warcaster Intercessor Kreoss (Kreoss3). Kreoss3 himself is sitting on a wood dowel, ready to be primed/painted, but not able to stand without support (I have a rack I slot in progress dowels in). The horse, otoh, can sit on its base currently, which is from Tabletop Art. The appearance is supposed to be that of it cresting some rubble/ruins.

The big chaosy dinomonster thing is pretty cool. Does look like a lot of work.

Looking over all the pictures, that Skorne force has a lot of funky monsters in it, would be pretty unsettling if you had to fight them yourself!

 GrimDork wrote:
The big chaosy dinomonster thing is pretty cool. Does look like a lot of work.

Looking over all the pictures, that Skorne force has a lot of funky monsters in it, would be pretty unsettling if you had to fight them yourself!

Yup. It has a lot of big monsters of various flavors. Of the various Hordes factions, it's the one that actually goes out and captures random monsters from the country side. The Titans (the elephant-esque things) it breeds herds of, but the others are captured one at a time in the wild (at the cost of some lives usually).

Legion of Everblight's beasts grow from the Dragonblight that creates everything in their army and twists and mutates the Frost Elves and Ogrun that make up the infantry and warlock ranks.
The Trollbloods beasts are genetic cousins to the Trollbloods themselves and naturally live near (and often with) their blood relations. There's a natural link between their shamans the beasts that's easily exploited.
Circle of Orboros either crafts its beasts from stones and wood (the Wold guardians) or curses Tharn (a barbarian tribe) into turning into massive Warpwolves (Werewolves that are in constant flux, changing as the battle requires). They have a few Satyrs allied to them and a few tamed Gryphons, but those are not large in number.

Skorne are the remnants of what used to be barbarian tribes of Eastern Immoren (the continent this is on). When the High Elves built the Bridge of Worlds to allow their gods into the world (breaking the ancient law of the Divine never entering the world of mortals), their arrogance about how they were 'the chosen race' nearly ended the world. The Bridge detonated in a blast many times that of a nuclear explosion. It devastated the eastern continent, nearly cut the continent in half (instead leaving a nearly impassable chasm), and killed all but 2 of the High Elven gods. The remaining elves used their magic to flee across the great chasm and founded the nation of Ios to the West, bordering the realms of Man where the realm was still temperate and food still growed and rivers still flowed.

They never considered, ever, what would happen to the barbarians in the deserts and hills, the Skorne, when they did they. Why should they? They were insignificant and had no gods. The Skorne were left to rot, even after losing so much of their population already to just being too close to the Elven nation from the explosion. The biosphere of that part of the continent was shattered and ruined. Mutation was common amongst the wildlife. Monsters rarely seen rushed to the surface, and others kept in check by the Elven empire flourished once more. Food was scarce, water scarcer, and Mad Max: Fury Road could've been set in this world.

The Skorne formed the code of Hoksune, to teach themselves how to fight honorably with each other (but is deeply unforgiving of weakness or failure). Instead of destroying themselves in an orgy of violence and survivalism, they became meaner, leaner, and stronger. They developed magics unique to their culture (Mortitheurgy -- a mixture of Necromancy and the channeling of pain and death) and began to tame beasts they found in the deserts and ruins to fight for them. They built their own cities, forged their own empire on the bones of the High Elven nation, have crossed the Great Chasm, and now march on Ios.

Completely unprepared for it the elves, already reeling at the possible loss of one of their last two remaining gods, at the repeated births of children without souls (meaning they have little personality, no creativity, and are utter sociopaths) that can never fit in their society, and a staggeringly declining birth rate, the last Elven defenders are too busy looking for whom to blame (anyone but themselves of course) and are not looking for ways to fix the problem.

The Skorne see a nation ripe for the picking, a giant that's fallen to age and despair and they plan to burn Ios to the ground and take everything the Elves have.

Because the bastards have it coming.

Skorne are the closest thing to an 'Orc' that this setting has, and are waaaaaaaaay more fun.

Yeah sounds neat and a bit more thought out than standard orcs

I can't get behind the Warmachine part of Warmahordes, and even a lot of the Hordes stuff throws me a bit. But it's still cool and having a good source for my vicarious enjoyment is always useful

But why don't those elves have their crazy sociopath elves kill the heck out of their enemies? I mean... if the elf nation gets overrun, the soulless elves are gonna die too. Or maybe they're just berserk?

 GrimDork wrote:
Yeah sounds neat and a bit more thought out than standard orcs

I can't get behind the Warmachine part of Warmahordes, and even a lot of the Hordes stuff throws me a bit. But it's still cool and having a good source for my vicarious enjoyment is always useful

But why don't those elves have their crazy sociopath elves kill the heck out of their enemies? I mean... if the elf nation gets overrun, the soulless elves are gonna die too. Or maybe they're just berserk?

The Soulless are still just a small percentage of the population due to how slowly the elves are reproducing. Not only do the elves have an issue right now where they're less fertile than ever, those that would be fertile are not breeding for fear of having a Soulless child. While the Soulless are still a percentage, it's a not-insignificant portion of all new births Enough so that most folks know someone that's 'lost' a child that way.

When a Soulless is found, the noble houses come and take them. They get shackled and enslaved by their own government, forced to fight (and die) as a way to find a use for them. One of the other things about their nature is that they're magically resistant (extremely so) and having them around can weaken magic in a given area. So they attach them to squads of infantry and let them loose to kill during the fight. They are not treated well.

They're sort of like psychic nulls/blanks from 40K but instead of just being loathed by anyone who meets them, they're actively hated.

And crazy and mean as the Soulless are, the Skorne have those that are not that far off. Skorne and Elves I suspect, are genetic cousins. Skorne look like very gaunt, hairless, boney elves, having the pointy ears and all, but to have the ability to be taller and broader of shoulder. With proper nutrition, the Skorne can be rather hulking (exampe: Lord Hexeris, the Cataphracts, Tyrant Commander), but usually only the most well off of them have access to that. This leads to some of the same craziness "running in the family", as there are groups of Skorne called "Nihilators" that believe that nothing matters in the world except the quality of death they can have is and tear and shred their own flesh, shoving flesh hooks and bars through their torso to work themselves into a berserker frenzy right before battle.

This is the same race that takes a Titan runt (one not worthy of being turned into a beast of war or labor) and then tortures it until its pain is so great, they can use Mortitheurgy to amplify it like a megaphone, and it resonates into any living beast around it (from other factions -- the Titans have been conditioned to ignore the pain of their own young) and saps them of strength. The pain being amplified is so great and so keening, it prevents Warcasters from being able to communicate magically with their Warjacks, flooding the bond between the two with its screams and cries.

They are really, really pitiless.

The elves and the Skorne deserve each other.

Haha sheesh. Sound a little dark eldary, maybe that would be my Warmahordes faction. Though... Everblight seems pretty neat too. Or whatever the dark/evil/undead Warmachine faction is.

I guess Cygnar is ok too but they're kind of steampunk for me. Well... Warmachine is kind of steampunk for me, that's why I like following your Hordes stuff especially

 GrimDork wrote:
Haha sheesh. Sound a little dark eldary, maybe that would be my Warmahordes faction. Though... Everblight seems pretty neat too. Or whatever the dark/evil/undead Warmachine faction is.

I guess Cygnar is ok too but they're kind of steampunk for me. Well... Warmachine is kind of steampunk for me, that's why I like following your Hordes stuff especially

Warmachine is extremely steampunk. Khador is Russian flavored, Cygnar is lightning flavored, Menoth is crazy flavored (or fiery habanero depending), Cryx is dead roadkill and necromancy flavored, Convergence is clockwork flavored, and the Elves of Ios are kinda anime flavored.

Legion of Everblight is literally WORLD CANCER. A slowly, ever evolving blob of hate and disease that mutates and twists and transforms anything near it into serving it. WORLD CANCER. The Tyranid faction, basically. It's what happens when a dragon from the WM setting decides 'screw this being a giant target thing, I'm just going to focus all my magic and power into turning my Dragonblight into a weapon' and hides his soul into a giant stone that's embedded into the chest of his greatest general.

Skorne have a 'slightly more honorable than Dark Eldar' mentality. They're not subtle and they don't do 'lying'. Think of them as hyper aggressive Samurai who have no consideration for anything that's outside of the warrior caste (IE: Any nonSkorne or any Skorne born outside of the warrior caste). If they actually consider you an equal, while they might kill you, they won't stab you in the back or lie to you. They'll be honest and let you come out and fight on the battlefield and honor you as a worthy foe should you fall. Any retainers or solders that survive of yours will be taken integrated into the Skorne house that defeated you, and be allowed to earn equal rank to what they previously had. There is no shame in having this occur according to their code. It was designed as a way when Skorne houses fight after the apocalypse that the Skorne didn't destroy their own gene pool with infighting, giving the defeated a way to keep contributing to society and to allow both sides, winner and loser, to maintain face and honor. In the Skorne empire, face is everything. Losing face means showing weakness. Those that are weak are culled in short order.

The number of people the Skorne consider equals are limited to a list of:

1. The Skorne

Pretty much it. They built the largest land empire on the planet in a post apocalyptic hellhole and are masters of their domain. Those that have come to Western Immoren (where the human kingdoms and the big multi faction war are happening) represent a fraction of their total fighting manpower. If the Great Chasm didn't exist and the Skorne could simply march everyone over towards the west unopposed, it'd be like the ocean tide washing over a sand castle.

So, yeah, they are more than a little proud of their accomplishments. They're not insignificant.

Real world analogies -- Skorne art, clothing, armor, and how they act is a mix of about three different real world cultures. They're like someone took Persia of Darius the Great, the Han Dynasty, and Feudal Warlord Japan and mixed them in pot with a dash of Mad Max for flavor. Out came the Skorne.

Anyways, before bed going to post this evening's paint session progress:



Got the grey trim and NMM weapons done on these two. The repaired Nihilator is back in the army transport bag as he's fixed. The grey, the turquoise, the purple, and the skin tones for my Skorne typically take up 90% of my paint time on my Skorne models. I expect these two done in the next day or two and some real pictures to follow.

Also trying a new brush -- Vallejo kalinsky sable. Liking it so far, but a bit on the expensive side. This was $13.50 USD at the LGS and is a Size1. Size 2 was $16.50 USD. I can usually get Winsor and Newtons (though I have to pay shipping) for under $10 each up to size 3. So.... meh? Nice brush, but I am not sure it is 50% extra nice. OTOH, it holds up. This is the brush after 8 total hours of paint time over the last few days with just using some brush soap and water to keep it clean:



One clear drawback to it, though. The handle is super, duper smooth. Feels nice in the hand, sure, but if you get any water on your hand (such as thinning paints or cleaning a spot in your palette) it'll slide around in your grip. Sweat'll cause it to happen, too. My W&N brushes don't have that problem, as the handle's just imperfect enough to aid the grip.

Spent most of the evening teaching myself NMM copper for the lanterns of my two models.

That... took a while. Also got the glow effect done on the lanterns.

Did one lantern after murdering my test minis for a bit to see how it'd turn out. Here we go:



Recipe is, so far:

Basecoat Citadel Rhinox Hide (Dark Red/Brown)
Mix in successively more P3 Menoth White Highlight (or any Ivory White) over three lighter and lighter highlight layers.
Mix of GW Fire Dragon Bright (Orange with a slight red to it) and P3 Bloodstone (light red/brown) into a wash and paint towards your shadows. Line dark areas as well.
Highlight with pure Menoth White Highlight (Ivory White).

That mini is really looking pretty awesome, I wish I could get myself to put even half that much effort into most of my guys.

I think I'm seeing what you've done with the copper on the lanterns, they seem a bit dark but I can see where you're going with it and it works well with the rest of the mini.

I apologize for the crap photos. I finish the minis and the camera poops itself. I have done my best to sub in a decent camera phone, but it's just not the same.

Mordikaar and Despoiler are done. This was a pain in the butt due to how ornate the Despoiler is. Next up on the paint table are some basic grunts I can do Base-Shade-Highlight on and quickly move on. Something simple and low stress.

Here's the finished models:









The second photo, of just the Despoiler, is the one closest to reality. You can see the NMM clearly there of both the lanterns and the armor. That was a lot of work, but I have a nice beaten copper NMM recipe to show for it now.

Though I don't put in quite as much work on anything as you do, I find I rather like the nice, simple stuff after doing something harder.

Both models are excellent, I particularly like the shade/tone/whatever you've achieved with the lantern glass, especially on the big guy.